Hello golfers and welcome to another edition of our newsletter. 

We hope that you had a good Easter weekend despite the unsettled weather. Storm Katie was the latest one to batter the UK with heavy rain and winds and we didn't escape as we had 20mm of rain overnight on Sunday. It's a testament to our greenkeepers hard work that the course was back open again on Monday morning. 

In this weeks news:

• Marc makes his mark in the Easter Stableford
• Our new Captain's drive ins start our new season this weekend
• Neil's extra 44 yards in the Distance Gained Challenge
• Keith wins the Seniors Winter League
• Ladies Foursomes review
• Upcoming events 
• The return of our famous shoe trade in deal
• Are you booked in on our next fitting day yet?

 

Easter Stableford Review 

Despite some heavy rain on Sunday night our greenkeepers managed to get the course in good condition for the Easter Stableford on Bank Holiday Monday. The winner was 27 handicapper Marc Williams who you will always see playing in shorts no matter what the weather! He didn't let the rain spoil his game in any way with a brilliant 43 point total. Marc scored a very rare 5 pointer on the par 5 twelfth hole as he made a birdie with two shots for a nett albatross! It was lucky Marc had a good back nine as Steve Hulse also scored 43 points in second place including three birdies. Steve will be gutted that he didn't score anything on the seventeenth hole as even just one point there would have given him victory. Six handicapper James Eaton also had an excellent round playing the course in level par gross to give him 42 points including four birdies.

   

Captain's Drive in this weekend 

Our new mens and ladies Captain's drive in to office this weekend. On Saturday new Lady Captain and Deal or No Deal celebrity Audrey Kettle will hit the first tee shot before their nine hole Stableford at 10.28am. Then on Sunday it will be the turn of Paul Underwood to hit the first tee shot before the April Medal at 12.04pm. 

   

Obviously the Captain's drive in's are always a real highlight of the season and it would be good if as many members as possible could arrive on time to watch the opening tee shots from our new Captain's to start off our new golf season - let's hope for some reasonable weather! 

For a bit of fun and in aid of his nominated Captain's Charity - the Russett School which supports children and young people with severe and complex learning difficulties, our new captain Paul is putting up a prize for the member that guesses how far his opening tee shot goes. 

He has assured me that he will be using a PING G20 10.5 degree as he looks to shed the tag that he can't use a driver that has been with him for the last few years! The competition will £2 a go and the prize is a dozen new golf balls and a McLaren branded cap plus other goodies. There is a sheet in the shop and so far guesses have ranged from 57 yards to 272 yards - how far do you think he can hit it under pressure?


 

Hartford Distance Gained Challenge 

Our distance gained challenge is still in full swing and we have a new leader in Neil Partington who has increased his driver distance by a massive 45 yards! Neil visited us for a fitting on Sunday and we measured his average distance with his PING G5 driver as 190 yards. After we gave him some advice and we tried a few new drivers out we settled on the new TaylorMade M2 with it's lighter shaft and more forgiving head as the best fit. Neil was then hitting it a very impressive average of 235 yards - a huge increase of 45 yards. 

The Challenge is further evidence that custom fitting works - the average increase we've seen in golfers drives is 17 yards, meaning that you could be hitting one or even two clubs less into the green - just think how much easier that would make your game! 

As our current challenge leader Neil is line to win a matching TaylorMade M2 fairway wood to match his new driver, but there is still time to beat him.

If you would like to gain some extra distance please contact us in the shop or click here to email me. 


 

Seniors Winter League Review 

The seniors Winter League came to a conclusion last Tuesday with their final winter nine hole Stabelford.  The winner on the day was Steve Tomkinson with 20 points, Pete Earlam came second with 17 points and in third place was Alan Phillips on 16 points. 

The main congratulations go to Keith Morrish who is the first winner of the seniors Winter League Trophy. Clearly that new PING driver that Keith recently bought coupled with some lessons with Adam Powell and some hard work on the range has paid off as he came second in the December round, won in January and came second again in February - This consistency over the winter gave him a deserved victory and his handicap has fallen by three shots - well done Keith!


 

Ladies Foursomes Review 

The ladies played their final Foursomes competition of the winter on Thursday morning. The winners were Jayne Broodryk and Elspeth Forbes with a very respectable score of nett 73. They were the clear winners as Jean Clare and Ena Rudman came second on 79.5. 

All of our ladies should be aware by now that the Lady Captain's Drive in will now be starting at 10.28am this Saturday - It's good to see that there are 33 ladies playing in the 9 hole competition please arrive for 10.15am as there will be an opportunity to place a marker on the fairway near where you think Audrey's drive will land.


 

Tee Reservations

- Lady Captain's Drive in & 9 hole Stableford - Saturday 2nd April 10.28am 
- Mens Captain's Drive in & April Medal - Sunday 3rd April 12.04pm 
- Seniors 9 hole Stableford - Tuesday 5th April 9.16am 
- Ladies 9 hole roll up - Thursday 7th April 9.32am 
- Spring Stableford - Saturday 9th April 12.04pm


 

Equipment News 

We had a very successful TaylorMade fitting day last week, for example Steve Hulse picked up an extra 30 yards on his 7 iron distance when he tried the new TaylorMade PSi iron against his old non custom-fitted club. 

Look out for our next fitting day with Titleist on Friday 15th April from 10am-2pm and it includes the fantastic new Vokey SM6 wedges as well as 915 woods and 716 irons. 

We also have a Benross fitting day for the first time, on Thursday 14th April 10am-2pm - For those of you that don't know too much about Benross they offer quality golf clubs that are fully custom fittable at great value prices. For example a full set of irons made to suit you can cost as little as £299 - This shows that custom fitted equipment doesn't have to cost a fortune. 

To book your FREE fitting with Titleist or Benross with no obilgation contact me in the shop or by clicking here. 

Shop Offers

Look out this week for the start of one of our most popular shop offers - The return of our Shoe trade in deal will run throughout April and you can get £20 OFF the price of selected shoe models from brands such as FootJoy, Nike, Skechers and Under Armour if you trade in an old pair. 

Here's last year's bin full of shoes - You can trade in any old pair of golf shoes it doesn't matter if they're falling apart! 

So if your shoes are getting worn or they're not waterproof and with lots of new shoes in the shop now is the perfect time to trade in and trade up! 

Remember to get your Masters sweepstake tickets in the shop now, there's only a handful of tickets left and their priced at £2 each - first prize is a £100 shop voucher with plenty more prizes including a bonus prize if you're player finishes last after the first two rounds.